As we continue to see our King Jesus through the Psalmist’s description of the anointed, supported, and strengthened one referred to as “David, My Servant,” we read that “a violent oppressor will not be able to humiliate him” (89:22b). Death, of course, is the greatest of all oppressors. It is and has been the constant, stalking, baneful enemy of man from the time of the fall. It has crowded in upon his thoughts, and in some way, covered the majority of his waking moments. For Jesus, as a man, death stood in the same role. When we read the Gospels, we find that death surrounded Him. Not only did it surround Him because people were constantly coming to Him for healing from maladies that were often productive of death, and not only did He raise people from the dead, but quite often, we find that his own life was threatened, with there being a relatively consistent existence of plans, from nearly the beginning of His ministry, to silence Him through assassination. Sometimes, these plans were well thought out and deliberated, and sometimes, such as that which we are able to witness in Nazareth, they seem to be a spur-of-the-moment thing.
When death finally caught up with Him and had Jesus in its grasp, not only was it going to be an oppressor, but it was going to be a violent oppressor. Jesus was going to experience the full weight of death’s might, as He underwent the scourging and the cross, which represented the pinnacle of man’s corrupted creativity, as it was one of the most torturous and painful means of death ever devised. The cross, along with its attendant punishments, was designed to not only induce the utmost of painful deaths, but also to humiliate, and to demonstrate the shameful victim’s utter powerlessness against the nearly omnipotent power of Rome. This is that which Jesus underwent, and to all appearances, it seems that He was made to succumb to the same fate as all that had been sent down the path of the cross, sharing in its shame and its humiliation, violently oppressed by death at the hands of Rome.
We know, however, that “a violent oppressor will not be able to humiliate him.” It may have appeared that Jesus had been successfully oppressed and humiliated by death, but this was not the case. There was a Resurrection. There was a vindication. There was a glorification. There was an exaltation. By His Resurrection, Jesus was made to defeat death. Now, the oppressor is the oppressed, with Jesus having gained victory for Himself and for the kingdom of God. Jesus has been shown forth to the appointed Son-of-God-in-power by the Resurrection. He is the unquestioned King and Lord of all. Though still at work in the world, because there is a hope for resurrection because of Jesus’ Resurrection, the once powerful oppressor, that had ruled the thoughts and minds and emotions of mankind, has been stripped of its power, and holds sway over the lives of God’s people no more. Indeed, the Holy Spirit, through the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus, that is and tells of God’s power and faithfulness, gifts a faith that shows forth a public and trusting allegiance to Jesus as Lord, renewing and transforming the mind, so that the place once occupied by death and all that death brings in its train, is now occupied by Jesus, as it is thoughts of Him and His service, along with a contemplation of God’s mission for the world that now rules the thoughts, the mind, and the emotions of men and women that now stand free. With the Resurrection and the hope for resurrection that it sparks, it can be said that death has lost its sting and the violent oppressor is de-toothed and de-clawed. The enemy that sought to humiliate, is now itself humiliated, as God says, “I will crush his enemies before him; I will strike down those who hate him” (89:23).
Though we are presented with David, the view that we are given is most definitely that of Jesus, as we find a portion of the Gospel message when we go on to hear God saying, following the defeat of this once vicious and all-conquering enemy, “I will appoint him to be My firstborn son, the most exalted of the earth’s kings” (89:27). Do we not call Jesus the King of kings? Of His son, God says, “I will always extend My loyal love to him, and My covenant with him is secure” (89:28). Jesus is the culmination of the covenant that began with Abraham, and the restoration of the covenant that God made with Adam. In Him, that covenant remains secure, and all those that call Him Lord can stand secure in the knowledge of their redemption and the hope of their joining Him in the restored creation, at the final consummation of the kingdom of God, in which God’s people are allowed to humbly participate in this day. God’s promise, to “give him an eternal dynasty, and make his throne as enduring as the skies above” (89:29) was sealed by the Resurrection, and made manifest by His people, in union with Him as He works through them to be the people of His kingdom, so that God’s will might be done on earth as it is in heaven.
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